- one of my own projects - the Weekend in Sweden Throw- a piece of crochet I picked up from a Thrift store (which has co-incidentally just seen the inside of the above dye pot!); and - one of the Teen's designs.

Since they reference my blog and I don't sell my work, I am not objecting and the Teen feels quite flattered. She was only 11 years old when she designed her bunny.

10 comments:

Ale, all hell would have broken loose had I generated an income from my work! I have also been observing a worrysome internet culture in South Africa, especially with regard to Facebook Groups. Smaller groups of ill informed and stubborn women see it as their right to share patterns - whether these carry copyright or not. Sadly this type of behavior indicates a lesser sophistication with regard to critical thinking and is a product of rote learning societies. I have now joined a few Dutch crochet groups and am over the moon with their respect for the work and $$$$ of others. Your triangles are great so by the way!

Good that they're at least referencing you. I vented about this pattern issue in a post that was wisely left in the Drafts Folder - might be softened up and brought out at some stage. There is a wrongful sense of entitlement among these people, but alas, also in the boo, music and printed music industries.Lovely green you have there.

That's true CJ! At one time I examined "copy culture" when I researched images created by children (drawings, photos etc) in the Far East and it is much more complex than people merely just copying one another. Looking at it from an Eastern perspective is quite fascinating and the discipline involved in meticulously replicating is mind blowing!

Agree with all of your comments and was going to reiterate CJ's comment. That's the way to see it otherwise it could easily eat you up emotionally. At least they referenced you but they couldn't get more blatant with copying your patterns right up to styling details. Pretty special that they think so much of your work that they are compelled to copy it! That is a compliment (as long as they aren't exploiting your intellectual property by making money out of it).Doris Chan has recently written an article on her Everyday Crochet blog about how the CGOA Design Competition entrants are often copied by the magazines, although it seems they are more above board over there and paying their designers.

The lines of right/wrong and what is truly original design etc are increasingly blurring, especially since we live in such an image saturated, information overloaded time of the WWW. For me crocheting is just a hobby so I am quite chilled as I too replicate ideas I like. It is the poor designers though who seem to be challenged by copyright infringement on a daily basis.